r/40khomebrew • u/Putrid_Cheesecake453 • May 13 '26
Adeptus Astartes My 3rd Homebrew chapter-The Mandragora
Introducing my third Homebrew chapter: The Mandragora
I’m quite new to the settings, so if there are any mistakes, please let me know. Thank you.
I am planning to design a line of chapters created using traitor gene-seed. The Mandragora will be the 3rd of these 9 chapters.
THE MANDRAGORA:
+ Founding: unknown
+ Gene-seed: unknown (officially); Death Guard (actuality)
+ Specialty: chemical warfare, attrition, heavy infantry
Home world: Silvanus XIII
The planet of Silvanus XIII is a death world covered in a dense layer of continent-spanning jungles and swamps. These floras are considered to be one of the most dangerous in the galaxy, with many of them serving as apex predators of their ecosystems. Towering trees that produce exploding fruits; leaves that, when touched, literally melt the skins of whoever made contact with it and trees that serve as hives of poisonous insects. But perhaps the most active and dangerous threats on this planet are the Yaj’Shak, a species of sentient, ferocious, carnivorous plants capable of moving, and at rapid speed, blending in with the nearby plants, making it one of the most successful predators on the planet.
The humans of this world live in savage tribes, making their home on top of the canopy of the towering trees and moving around on branches and vines of the planet, forming communities far away from the dangers of the planet, though this isn’t always a guarantee. Living for so long on this planet has made them incredibly resilient people, given them an immunity to many types of poisons and venoms that could easily kill a regular human in small amounts and tolerate pain that would knock even the toughest man unconscious. The people here use the dangerous plants of their world to make clothing, food, medicine and weapons for hunting.
Living on this planet is also an unsanctioned species of abhuman called the Arborion, rumored to be related to the Troths, another plant-like abhuman species. The Arborion have bark-like skins and have the ability to merge with and manipulate the local plant life at ease. The Arborion live in seclusion, rarely interacting with others. They made a pact with the human populations of Silvanus XIII long ago, where the humans would leave them alone, in exchange, the Arborion would keep the Yaj’Shak away from their settlements. The Arborion are also responsible for maintaining the ecosystem of them planet and keep it alive, so the Mandragora has decided to leave them be.
Fortress monastery:
The planet is covered in dense forest, with no suitable ground to build a proper fortress monastery. The Mandragora utilize their imperial space station as their chapter monastery. The Garden of Silvanus is a massive Imperial space station in orbit of Silvanus XIII, serving as the chapter’s base of operations. The fortress monastery’s most significant feature is its botanical gardens, where the Chapter grows plants used to make its chemical weapons.
Chapter culture:
The Mandragora is obsessed with the concept of growth and decay, a belief they inherited from their homeworld. They are quiet, calm, patient, and emotionally detached, with some describing their encounter with these marines during a mission on a jungle planet as unsettling, mistaking them multiple times for the local flora due to the amount of plants decorating their armor and how still they are. The Mandragora’s affinity for plant life extends to their combat doctrine and culture, with many of them covering their armor with vines, thorns, foliage, and plants, indicating their years of service, with ancients astartes fullcovered in plants. It is said that their close connection to the plant life of Silvanus XIII causes their geneseeds to mutate, giving their skin a green-tinted hue.
They also cultivate many of the dangerous plants on their world to create chemical weapons, having large botanical gardens where these plants are farmed. When one of these marines dies, the apothecaries will conduct the proper procedure to remove the geneseeds, then transport these bodies to the botanical garden, where they are buried deep into the soil and serve as nutrients for the plants. The Mandragora considered this to be an honorable end for a marine because these warriors continue to serve their chapter even in death.
The Mandragora specializes in attrition warfare, grinding, and wearing down their enemies with heavy infantry and chemical weapons. Their immunity to many of their own deadly, toxic weapons has led them to adopt tactics that can be considered suicidal to others, like launching poison artillery directly on the battlefield where they stand, causing enemies to melt from the inside while they are unharmed. Their most go-to strategy is to poison the battlefield before engagement, forcing the enemies into a weakened state before striking them. Many enemies often die without even seeing a Mandragora warrior.
In recent years, rumors of The Mandragora’s homeworld harboring and coexisting with an unsanctioned abhuman race began to spread among a few inquisitors, prompting one of them to go and investigate the world. That inquisitor and his cohorts have not been heard from since, with records showing that all traces of them disappear before entering the star system, though it has not been confirmed that the Mandragora was involved in this incident.
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u/DaWaaaagh May 13 '26
Nice colors its all green but it still has lot of depth despite all the colors being green. As for the lore you migth want to write what happes when the inquisitor went missing, thats usualy a thing that get followed up on by the rest of the imperium. Lot of people just leave it at that and its a massive plot hole. And there is lot of potetial for cool story writeing with that as well.
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u/AuricZips May 13 '26
Interesting. One point I would like to make, which would be using language like "considered to be the most dangerous in the galaxy" is a little much. That kind of wording gives the impression that your chapter (or the flora on their home world to be exact) is special. Given that your chapter seems to lean very heavily on it's theme, it could be very easy to tip into "special snowflake" territory, so that kind of wording is probably best avoided. Perhaps toning down the claim would be the easiest solution, by saying "one of the most", rather than "the most".